"The essence of what occurred here is that a government understandably zealous to protect its citizens from terrorism came upon a man both bigoted and suggestible, one who was incapable of committing an act of terrorism on his own," McMahon said, referring to Cromitie.

"It created acts of terrorism out of his fantasies of bravado and bigotry, and then made those fantasies come true," she added.

She said unlike the other domestic terror cases, "the government did not have to infiltrate and foil some nefarious plot - there was no nefarious plot to foil."

At the same time, she said she could not condemn Cromitie and his cohorts strongly enough.

"You were not political or religious martyrs," the judge said. "You were thugs for hire, pure and simple."